I believed that the new Board whee going to invest in the club to move it forward. As of yet I don't see anything happening in that area.

Simon has shown he is a quality coach, and has certainly exceeded my expectations, but without that bigger budget I sadly don't see him improving on last years performance.

I think it will be a home win by over 12 points.

Well the result was no surprise as I mentioned pre match but just a thought or two on the pack scenario.

Last season Fax matched up pretty well to all the other teams in that area, (against some of them because of ill discipline we played with only 12 men for big minutes and still got the results).

The facts are only Leigh and Fev have been noticeably stronger, incidentally not only against Fax but all the other teams as well!!

Last years games against Fev they were pretty close affairs but on both occasions the better overall team won on the day as they did on Sunday.
It wouldn't have changed the result at the weekend but losing Bob from the middle after 5 or 6 minutes didn't help as it left us with just 2 forwards and little Woody on the bench / interchange for the rest of the game and if there's one team you don't want that to happen against it's Fev.

The primary reasons for Leigh and Fev having the advantage in the forwards comes down to two things, shortage of the better / bigger type of players at this level and money and that's why the few who are available are snapped up by the those with the bigger purse strings.

Grix is fully aware of how the game is played but with his lower budget is faced with the poorer choice of going down the bigger in size but not better in overall contribution or the more mobile bigger in minutes better overall contribution and that's it.

A couple of recent Fax player examples and the question, who would we choose a Keegan Hurst or a Titus Gwaze type of player?
and as stated with Titus it came down to money and his choice to move on not SG.

Another recent Fax player where he tried to address it was with Gadwin who was doing a great impact job and at the time proved that Grix both saw the need for a bigger middle and chose the right player.

As it turned out Springer left the club by mutual consent after a fallout that got out of hand.

The seeds for this were sown at that seasons Oldham away game over technical issues.
G S and others gave away the ball whilst in possession which contributed to an unacceptable loss.
GS and all the others got told about it but it was only GS who didn't like it to the point of leading to a rift and his departure.

In connection with that regarding the meter's made in a game stats, they don't only include those made by the pack.
You need to include the entire team and to look at some of the big contributors such as possession from the likes of completion rate / penalties because whoever has the ball makes the yardage along with the field position / number of tackles made / amount of juice in the tank etc and is the more likely to win the game and we haven't got the best record in more than one of those areas.

I completely agree with your realistic summary of the forward alternatives available to Grix; wasn't aware of the detail around Springers departure as at the time was very sorry to see him leave as he seemed to offer something we hadn't had in the forwards for several years. Unfortunately the signing of Maher felt to me as a recognition that we needed bigger forwards, but we're getting one who might be solid defensively but offered little going forward. My only hope here is that Grix is able to do with Maher what he helped achieve with Murray who I thought improved massively last season. In signing Doro and King i was really hopeful they would offer the dynamism that's been lacking in the pack - as one hasn't played yet and the others only had 1 game, probably only fair to give them time to show their worth.

I didn't attend the match but having seen the highlights it's a case of same old again. Some of that was hard to watch but we're only two games in and will undoubtedly improve. Injuries from that game won't have helped but Sheffield's win at Barrow points to some optimism for Fax. Another early away trip to POR has helped give Fev an early leg up again but we need to get on a roll now starting with London on Sunday. Up The Fax!

Regarding the pack it's probably more noticeable and that area has certainly received the most attention but it's not only there were we are either being outbid or asked to pay more than we are prepared to as I am led to believe that Fax have gone in for more than one player and come up against that scenario and lost out.
We have still got some funds available but only for the right players at the right price but considering the above makes you wonder where we will find them?

Likewise with player retention, if Sheffield can offer more than we are prepared to / able to for Gwaze then what chance is there of trumping the bigger fish to a signature?

On bigger fish and money everything is relative to the pond your swimming in, for example in the Championship in each case Leigh, Toronto, Toulouse have been the big ones in the Championship but as soon as they go into a bigger pool the tables are turned, they become the little fish, face the same challenges we are and they have all finished bottom!!

This year seeing how Leigh go in SL will be interesting because no club has invested more or looked better than they did last year but if they struggle again it begs the question can anyone bridge the gap?

Goal line defence was poor also the length of pitch breaks from kicks on the last should not be happening with ease. Some of the defence was terrible in this and some need to learn to tackle